Month: February 2014
Exercise maximum tolerance in Tanjay impasse
No media access to images of semi-clad Bieber – for now: judge
By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) – A Miami judge on Thursday temporarily blocked media access to any more video images of a semi-clad Justin Bieber filmed while the teenage pop singer was in police custody last month after his arrest for driving under the influence. The police station footage included clips of Bieber giving a urine sample behind a low wall. Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield ordered that about 10 hours of police surveillance video not be released until he has been able to review them in his chambers. "Do you believe that the public has the right to … see Justin Bieber urinating?" the judge asked attorneys representing several large media companies seeking access to the video under Florida's broad public records law.
U.S. proposes new safety rules for farm pesticide use
Farm workers, children and other people working or living near farm fields would have more protection from hazardous pesticides under changes proposed on Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Today marks an important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food that we put on our tables each day,” Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator, said in a statement. EPA is proposing revisions to the agency’s 22-year-old “Worker Protection Standard” that EPA officials say will help protect approximately 2 million U.S. farm workers and their families from exposure to pesticides used to protect crops from weeds, insects, and disease. The EPA said pesticides are beneficial tools in agriculture when used in proper concentrations and with proper protections.
Elevated radiation found in air near New Mexico waste site
Testing of surface air near an underground nuclear waste site in New Mexico’s desert showed elevated levels of radiation but did not pose a threat to humans or the environment, a U.S. Department of Energy official said on Thursday. Trace amounts of man-made radioactive elements such as plutonium were found at an air-monitoring site half a mile from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and are tied to a radiation leak in the underground salt formation where waste from defense research and nuclear weapons production is stored, said Joe Franco, manager of an Energy Department field office that oversees the plant. Energy officials said over the weekend that there was no apparent surface air contamination from the accidental release of radiation that caused an air-monitoring alarm below ground to go off about 11:30 p.m. local time on Friday.